'Try, Try, Never Die, HOOAH!'

Many students of Fall Mountain Regional High School in Langdon, New Hampshire, begin class with that yell every day, sometimes delivering it in military uniform. They are cadets in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps, JROTC, a U.S. Army-sponsored program. Its goal is not to turn children into soldiers, but to motivate them to become better citizens by teaching them military values Americans admire: service, honor, skill and leadership.
Curious about the place of the military in American culture, Dutch photographer and writer Ellen Kok followed the cadets for over two years. What do marching in formation, doing push-ups, shining uniform buttons, firing air rifles and addressing each other with “Sergeant” or “Captain” do for young people? Does it help them to cope with the challenges life throws at them, at home and in school? And will the Wildcat Battalion manage to keep its gold star of Honor Unit with Distinction?

I will be participating in the Indie Author Day event on Saturday October 8, 2016 at the Keene Public Library in Keene, New Hampshire.

It is free and open to the public and starts at 10:30 a.m. with introductions. Presentations and panels will take place at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 2 p.m. There will be time to meet and great local indie authors throughout the day.

The Dutch photography magazine Pf published an interview with me about my work. If you happen to be able to read Dutch, you might like to check it out here: https://www.pf.nl/zilver-fotoboek-the-other-farm. Or you can just go there to enjoy my photography.

Dutch Culture USA, the division of the Kingdom of the Netherlands’ government that supports and promotes arts and culture from the Netherlands in the United States, has an interesting blog with lots of information about the amazing amount of Dutch art that it promotes in the US.

The blog is now featuring an interview with me, written by Sophie Oostelbos, about “Cadets," my fascination with American culture, my motivation behind my long-term book project “American Moments” (ongoing since 1996), and the photo story I am working on at the moment: “Teen Mom Revisited”.

Photoville is a temporary photography village, a little community. Let’s have a look at the layout of Photoville. Here’s a map of the place, situated in Brooklyn Bridge Park on the East River, with a beautiful view of Manhattan on the other side of its water.

The Consul General of The Netherlands in New York, Rob de Vos, and the Photoville 2015 team invited Dutch photographers to celebrate the Dutch presentations at this year’s festival.

Photoville features four Dutch photography exhibitions: “20 Emerging European Photographers,” presented by International Photo Festival Leiden; “Data Rush,” presented by Noorderlicht Photography Foundation; work by 28 Dutch photographers in the exhibition “Face the Dutch,” and “Cadets”.

Americans love souvenirs. That’s why we had a Photoville Cadets button made as a give away and keepsake. It also turns out to be a nice ice-breaker. Give one away and the receiver not only will reward you with a nice smile, but often also start sharing feelings about the photos just seen. And that’s what Photoville is all about: connecting through photography.

A view into my shipping container, number 30, at Photoville. The New York photography festival opened yesterday, September 11. My Cadets photos were printed by Carl Saytor from LuxLab in New York. The prints are beautiful!

On it’s opening night the Ville was already drawing a huge crowd, and it was nice to see that people are really paying close attention to the work and are eager to talk to the photographers who made it.

The opening of Photoville got delayed yesterday because of the weather. Rain and thunderstorms were pummeling the New York City region and since this is an outdoor event, the organizers decided to take no risks and go for safety first.

This morning the sky is still gray, but the sun is peeking through already. So please join us at 4:00 PM today, Friday September 11th for the opening of Photoville!